I was recently in a somewhat large city and was doing a bit of StreetComplete and it has a bunch of questions that try to figure how accessible a route is and I noticed how fucking bad it is. As it was a larger city there were at least those bumpers at traffic lights, which is not the norm everywhere in my experience, but that was about it. Sometimes the curb was lowered on one side so you could easily traverse it with a wheelchair etc. but it was only on one side of the road, the other side was at complete height (at least 15cm). This meant you might easily get on the road but head no way of properly getting of.
That’s one thing that struck me about the last time I was in the US. The cities are SO incredibly inaccessible. All the buildings need to be compliant, so once you make it through the door, you’re fine, but getting there is basically impossible for people with disabilities.
No sidewalks, almost no public transportation and where it exists, it’s impossible to get in or out. Cars can turn right on a red light in SO many places, so you can basically never know when you can safely cross what should be clear path.
There’s been a lawsuit under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that resulted in a consent decree forcing local governments to put in ADA-compliant ramps at intersections. But the lawsuit apparently didn’t also include the sidewalks themselves, so now there are useless “ADA ramps to nowhere” everywhere. It’s fucking infuriating!
Right on red could be OKish if majority of drivers followed even a fraction of road laws and made even a half attempt at stopping first, before looking, then finally starting the turn from a complete stop.
Fun fact: right turn on red came about in response to the oil crisis. It wasn’t legal by default before that. My local streets advocacy group wants a city no right on red law, but I don’t see how it’d happen in the current environment.
I had that experience as well, it also asks whether the traffic lights make a sound. I hear it all the time, never need it and never realised I might hear it all the time, I dont hear it at every crossing. Suddenly it felt so random whether or not it was doing the ticking or not.
In my city in Canada you need to hold the crossing button for like a second or two and then it’ll do the noise. Maybe that’s why it seems random? I know its easy to do by mistake
That’s a good one, the ones with a tactile thing require a touch whereas others are a physical buttons. It could be true that these need to be pushed longer for a sound. But at the same time, some make a sound when the light was red too. I’m gonna try it when i come across one of those kind of buttons.
I’ve recently been spending time somewhere that has street crossings that talk to you. Its annoying in a cute way to have a voice clearly say something to the effect of “the light to cross x street is lit, you may cross” (the annoying bit is that until it’s lit it says “wait” repeatedly)
I don’t need it, but if I did that’s exactly the sort I’d want. Its so clear! Zero confusion! I didn’t have to look up from my phone to cross the street! :p
Some did, but most of the ones that had no sound had no tactile thing either. I expect the bussier center to have better coverage of accessible traffic lights, the experience I had was in a low traffic area on the outskirts of that town.
I was recently in a somewhat large city and was doing a bit of StreetComplete and it has a bunch of questions that try to figure how accessible a route is and I noticed how fucking bad it is. As it was a larger city there were at least those bumpers at traffic lights, which is not the norm everywhere in my experience, but that was about it. Sometimes the curb was lowered on one side so you could easily traverse it with a wheelchair etc. but it was only on one side of the road, the other side was at complete height (at least 15cm). This meant you might easily get on the road but head no way of properly getting of.
That’s one thing that struck me about the last time I was in the US. The cities are SO incredibly inaccessible. All the buildings need to be compliant, so once you make it through the door, you’re fine, but getting there is basically impossible for people with disabilities.
No sidewalks, almost no public transportation and where it exists, it’s impossible to get in or out. Cars can turn right on a red light in SO many places, so you can basically never know when you can safely cross what should be clear path.
There’s been a lawsuit under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that resulted in a consent decree forcing local governments to put in ADA-compliant ramps at intersections. But the lawsuit apparently didn’t also include the sidewalks themselves, so now there are useless “ADA ramps to nowhere” everywhere. It’s fucking infuriating!
Wow, that’s just… sad and infuriating.
Right on red could be OKish if majority of drivers followed even a fraction of road laws and made even a half attempt at stopping first, before looking, then finally starting the turn from a complete stop.
Could be, but won’t.
Fun fact: right turn on red came about in response to the oil crisis. It wasn’t legal by default before that. My local streets advocacy group wants a city no right on red law, but I don’t see how it’d happen in the current environment.
I had that experience as well, it also asks whether the traffic lights make a sound. I hear it all the time, never need it and never realised I might hear it all the time, I dont hear it at every crossing. Suddenly it felt so random whether or not it was doing the ticking or not.
In my city in Canada you need to hold the crossing button for like a second or two and then it’ll do the noise. Maybe that’s why it seems random? I know its easy to do by mistake
That’s a good one, the ones with a tactile thing require a touch whereas others are a physical buttons. It could be true that these need to be pushed longer for a sound. But at the same time, some make a sound when the light was red too. I’m gonna try it when i come across one of those kind of buttons.
I’ve recently been spending time somewhere that has street crossings that talk to you. Its annoying in a cute way to have a voice clearly say something to the effect of “the light to cross x street is lit, you may cross” (the annoying bit is that until it’s lit it says “wait” repeatedly)
I don’t need it, but if I did that’s exactly the sort I’d want. Its so clear! Zero confusion! I didn’t have to look up from my phone to cross the street! :p
You still should check! Lots of idiots out there.
The non ticky/beepy ones should have a tactile knob on the bottom of the box that spins when it’s safe to cross.
Some did, but most of the ones that had no sound had no tactile thing either. I expect the bussier center to have better coverage of accessible traffic lights, the experience I had was in a low traffic area on the outskirts of that town.